Roots Archives Forum

Hello,

I wanted to introduce myself as a new member of the forum and new to reggae. I developed an interest a week ago or so when I started a 'six great albums in a row' thread on the Alllman Brothers Band board and someone mentioned Marley. I recalled never giving him a fair shake when I heard his stuff previously and set about acquiring his material online. (Don't worry, I'm picking it up on disc ASAP.) I realized that I clicked with a lot of it and went searching for reviews on Amazon to broaden my base of information.

One reviewer commented that he hates the way many Bob Marley refuse to give other reggae a listen, insisting that Marley is the king and thus there's no need to listen to other stuff. He drew an analogy to deciding that Elvis is the king of rock and roll and therefore there's no need to other rock music and asked why it was okay to do with reggae. I asked that he recommend me some reggae albums for me and followed his recommendations and hunted out Amazon lists for best reggae albums and decided to Google for a reggae message board...I ended up here.

As of now, I've been digging into some Marley albums and King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown. (Again, I'll be buying this quickly. I believe in trying before buying, NOT stealing.) King Tubbys Meets...really blew me away and drove hom that reviewer's point. Ironically, after listening to that album I missed the hard rhythms and deep bass in the Marley I was listening to.

I'll probably be asking for some advice here in the future, but at this point I think I'm on the right path in regards to building my collection up with some cornerstones of reggae. I'll get to my first planned order in a later post in this thread. For now, I'd just like to say that I'm happy to be here.

Hi Geo,

Welcome, see this thread to start from:

http://www.roots-archives.com/forum/rea ... 723,page=1

And see the sticky thread on this forum about you tube. You Tube has to offer allot of reggae and is nowaday the way to get familiar with tunes and artists.

And this forum of course

Siegfried
www.reggae-wise.eu

Looks like a great thread to dig into. I also (ironically, perhaps) found a lot of great info in the over-rated albums thread.

LOL well donnot take that to serious, just use you tube to develop your own taste.

Let me be a bit more clear: A lot of comments described various albums as being over-exposed or overrated. If an album is well-known enough to raise that kind of attention it's likely something that is important that I should give a listen!

True, enjoy your reggae trip.

I envy you, man. It's hard to recommend something to a new fan - mainly cause I remember it taking a while for certain sounds to sink in.

My recommendation would be to get ahold of some of those Soul Jazz Studio One comps. Try some Gladiators. I like the militant sound of steppers - like Pablo Gad. Burning Spear is awesome, Leroy Smart, Johnny Clarke, Linval Thompson.

Dig in to the earlier rocksteady material. Treasure Isle comps, Alton Ellis, John Holt, Delroy Wilson.

You have your deejay sounds - U Roy, Big Youth, I Roy, Prince Jazzbo.

And when you're ready check out some early Dancehall - Ranking Dread, Sugar Minott, Michigan and Smiley.

Thanks for the tips. I'm currently 'sculpting' an order (once in a while an album shuffles in or out) but when I get it finished I'll make sure to post it. Should be soon, and once I've absorbed that stuff I'll dig into a few of those suggestions.

sounds good - when you find some special singers or styles then send a next reply and we'll give some recommendations to explore those further

I highly recommend using Ernie B for your orders rather than Amazon. Check it out. Cheap. Fast shipping. Best selection you'll find. Not a vulture:

http://www.ebreggae.com/

That's actually another good way to get started. Look through Ernie B's Essential Picks section. Can't hardly go wrong with anything listed there!

And, no, I don't work for Ernie B! But I do spend way too much of my paycheck there.